(News East) It was in a way rather providential that Rajesh Khanna’s meteoric rise to the dizzying heights of superstardom in the late 1960s began at a juncture when the golden era of Hindi cinema was drawing to a close. The troika of Raj Kapoor. Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand had left their best days behind them, or were at least on the verge of doing so, and a yawning vacuum was emerging at the heart of the Mumbai movie industry. It needed an infusion of fresh blood to stay on its feet.
Rajesh Khanna was the answer. Had Kaka, as Hindi filmdom’s first certified superstar was known to his friends and fans alike, not stepped into the breach, the history of Mumbai’s popular cinema would have panned out quite differently. Pitted against the rugged masculinity of a Dharmendra, he projected a soft, vulnerable romanticism that won him fans overnight. Men aped him; girls swooned over him.
Khanna was like nothing Hindi cinema had seen before. He held the industry together with a combination of talent and charisma, which translated into a steady string of commercial and critical success stories. As is well known, between 1969 and 1971, he delivered 15 consecutive blockbusters, including the record-breaking Haathi Mere Saathi, the biggest grosser ever at that point.
Rajesh Khanna was to the manner born, a quality actor and a magnetic star who could weave a wave of magic with a gentle nod of his head, a simple jig of his hand, a twinkle in his eye or a high-wattage smile that set hearts aflutter.
But there was much more to the man than the signature mannerisms that made him the phenomenal crowd-puller that he was. He was a fine screen performer who revelled in etching out tangible characters just as much as he enjoyed playing a charming romantic hero. He earned accolades from hardened critics as much as he garnered hossanas from the public.
Even at the height of his career, Khanna dared to take risks and triumph over odds, an atribute that would set him apart from his successor, Amitabh Bachchan, when a historian sits down to take stock of the two careers a few decades down the line. He took up acting assignments that called for special courage on the part of a superstar on whom huge budgets and expectations rode as a matter of routine.
In the very year that he emerged as the undisputed box office king, 1969, he had four major successes – Aradhana, Khamoshi, Do Raaste and Ittefaq – and each film was distinct from the other. That was to become the guiding principle of Khanna’s career virtually all through the first half of the 1970s, a period during which he held complete sway over the Indian movie-going masses.
His was a short reign at the top – it lasted well under a decade – but the number of unforgettable roles he played ensured that even after Amitabh Bachchan eclipsed him by the late 1970s, the Khanna aura continued to linger. With his singing voice, the inimitable Kishore Kumar, Khanna set Hindi cinema free from the burdens of its past and catapulted it into the modern era.
For half a decade and a bit, on the wings provided by the Khanna-Kishore combo, Hindi cinema and its music soared as high as at any other time in the annals of Mumbai filmdom and left an indelible mark on the minds and hearts of a movie-crazy people.
Khanna had musical hits like Kati Patang, Sachcha Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, Roti, Mere Jeevan Sathi and Dushman, among many others, on the one hand and intense, sensitive and equally popular dramas like Anand, Amar Prem, Safar, Bawarchi and Aavishkar to show for his efforts as an actor of substance.
The tremendous mass appeal that Khanna enjoyed in his prime had no precedent even though he began his career after the likes of Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor had cast their own unique spells on their nation. His fan following cut across age: moviegoers from eight to eighty fell for him. India had never seen something like the hysteria he generated.
He was a slightly built man, wasn’t a great looker and usually came across as an ordinary bloke, but once the camera was turned on he would instantly transform himself into a bundle of magnetism that could hold millions in thrall.
Rajesh Khanna’s death at the age of 69 – that is obviously no age for a superstar to leave the stage – has robbed Hindi cinema of a large part of its sheen although he had dropped out of the limelight long ago. The show will go on, but Bollywood will never be the same again.
